Deep Freeze 6 Squadron Six (VX-6). Upon receipt of the opera- tion order, briefings and discussions were conducted Air Operations to acquaint everyone within the squadron, from the commanding officer to the most junior airman, with DANIEL BALISH the details of the order. Aircraft were checked, re- checked, and tuned for antarctic service. Personnel Commander, USN were assisted in arranging their personal affairs for Bureau of Naval Personnel the fast-approaching six-month deployment to Ant- arctica, and leave schedules were adjusted to ac- Deep Freeze 67 was a very fruitful and satisfying commodate the inescapable last-minute details. It season of antarctic air operations. Resupply goals was a scene familiar to those who had been with the were exceeded, more high-quality aerial pho- squadron during a previous deployment, and in tography of the Antarctic was obtained than in any varying forms it was reenacted in Virginia by the other season, the placement and retrieval of field Army helicopter unit preparing for its 10-week de- parties very closely matched the planned timetables, ployment, and in California by the Navy Transport and no serious injuries or aircraft accidents oc- Squadron for its scheduled two months in Antarctica. curred. These achievements are a tribute to the pi- lots and airmen of the Antarctic Air Group and to Evacuation From Byrd Station the many dedicated personnel who participated in By mid-August, VX-6 was prepared in all re- preparing the plan of air operations. spects for an orderly deployment to Antarctica to commence Deep Freeze 67 operations according to Plan Paves Path plan, but the validity of the old adage about best Careful planning is the path to success, and Deep laid plans was once more demonstrated. A major Freeze 67 air operations actually began in confer- change to the plan that had been so carefully pre- ence rooms in early 1966. Prior to the drafting of pared for Deep Freeze 67 occurred when word was the Task Force operation order, numerous meetings received that a scientist wintering at Byrd Station and discussions were conducted by the staff of the was seriously ill and aerial evacuation was recom- U.S. Naval Support Force, Antarctica with partici- mended. Air Development Squadron Six was alerted, pating military aviation commands: the U.S. Navys and within 12 hours of a report on September 9 Air Development Squadron Six; the U.S. Army that the patients condition was worsening, an Aviation Detachment (Antarctica Support); and Air LC-130F Hercules, manned by a volunteer crew, Transport Squadron Seven, which was a Navy had departed Quonset Point, R. I., for Antarctica. squadron under the operational control of the Air (A second LC-130F left later to serve in a reserve Forces Military Airlift Command. and rescue capacity.) The evacuation plane pro- Information on the many complex scientific ceeded directly to Christchurch, New Zealand, stop- projects to be supported was considered in the light ping only for fuel (at Alameda Naval Air Station, of those logistics planning factors that are most im- California; Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii; and portant to a smooth, orderly flow of personnel and Nandi, in the Fiji Islands). On arrival at Christ- materials to and within the Antarctic. Consultation with the National Science Foundation was constant in order to assure that the emerging air operations plan would be complete and accurate. Mr. William MacDonald of the U.S. Geological Survey contrib- uted immeasurably to the aerial photographic survey plan. The preliminary discussions completed, the operation order for Deep Freeze 67 was published by the Commander, U.S. Naval Support Force, Ant- arctica on July 22, 1966. The unit of the Antarctic Aviation Group sched- uled to deploy first was, of course, Air Development

Operations Officer and Executive Officer of Air Devel- (US. Navy P110(o) opment Squadron Six from April 1964 to June 1966, when A ,,nv turbi,u helicopters have supported field parties since he assumed command. He was detached from VX-6 in Deep Freeze 62 (above). This season the y iiere used in Marie April 1967. B yrd Laud.

July-August, 1967 133 church, about 39 hours after departing Quonset craft arrived at Christchurch in early October after Point, the crew readied the aircraft for antarctic the 10,000-mile trip from Quonset Point. It was ex- operations before turning in for a welcome 10-hour pected that the plane would proceed to McMurdo rest. The morning of September 12 found the crew shortly after arriving in New Zealand, but—belong- rested, the aircraft ready, and the weather along the ing to an earlier and less powerful generation of air- route to Antarctica favorable. craft than do either the Hercules or the Constella- The evacuation flight departed for McMurdo at tion—the LC-1 17 needed near-perfect conditions for 1000. When it arrived there nine hours later, fog its flight to Antarctica: clear weather at McMurdo and poor light conditions prevailed, requiring a for a 24-hour period, a headwind component of ground-controlled approach to landing. The crew not more than 10 knots, and an atmosphere free of was greeted by tired but happy wintering-over per- ice. To predict the concurrence of these conditions, sonnel of the McMurdo Detachment who had pre- the meteorologists of Task Force 43 spent many pared the landing facilities on extremely short no- hours analyzing weather data on a round-the-clock tice. The evacuation plan called for the aircraft to basis, but almost two months passed before the proceed immediately to Byrd Station for a daylight weather criteria for the flight could be met. Finally, landing, but Nature played one of her high cards— in late November, the plane departed Invercargill, bad weather at Byrd Station. The weather forced the New Zealand. Some 1 5 hours later, the trusty old plane to wait at McMurdo for 10 hours, after which aircraft landed at Williams Field, and her crew was it was decided to press on with the evacuation even greeted by a jubilant welcoming committee of though Byrd Station would be shrouded in black squadron mates.) antarctic night. The September 13 flight to Byrd was conducted Season Starts on Schedule without any particular difficulty and, except for tem- By September 23, the four Hercules and the two peratures of —63°C. (-82°F.), 2 the crew consid- Constellations had completed their part in moving ered it uneventful. The seriously ill scientist was personnel and cargo to Christchurch, after which all carefully settled in the aircraft, and 35 minutes after aircraft were subjected to further checks and its arrival, the aircraft was winging its way back to outfitted for antarctic operations, scheduled to start Christchurch via McMurdo. Before the day ended, on October 1. On the stroke of midnight, Christ- the ailing scientist had been admitted to Christ- church time, the first of four LC- l3OFs commenced church General Hospital. Less than 100 hours had its takeoff run for the eight-hour flight to McMurdo. elapsed from the time the flight was ordered to the On board for the initial fly-in were Rear Admiral time the aircraft completed a mission which had re- Bakutis, the Task Force commander, Captain H. quired it to fly halfway around the world. M. Kosciusko, the commander of Antarctic Support Once the emergency flight had been completed, Activities, the commanding officer of VX-6, and 35 VX-6 resumed operations on the basis of the origi- military and civilian personnel essential to the ex- nal plan, the instruments of which were four pansion of operations at McMurdo Station. Cargo LC-130F Hercules, three LC-117s, two C-121J on the first aircraft included mail and priority spare Super Constellations, one C-47 Skytrain, and five parts for machinery at McMurdo. The other three LH-34 Seahorse helicopters. Three helicopters and Hercules departed Christchurch at two-hour inter- two of the LC-1 17s had remained at McMurdo in vals with additional priority passengers and cargo. winter storage, and the C-47 was in Christchurch, All four planes flew to McMurdo without incident where it had been completely overhauled in the and arrived on schedule; Deep Freeze 67 was in full shops of the National Airways Corporation of New operation. After a two-hour refueling and servicing Zealand. Both of the Constellations had been em- period at McMurdo, two of the aircraft returned to ployed since mid-August in transporting advance Christchurch to pick up more passengers and cargo personnel from the continental United States to for McMurdo as part of the plan to relieve the sta- Christchurch. Two LH-34s were shipped aboard tions wintering-over party at the earliest practicable USNS Towle, and the remaining aircraft—two date. LC-13017s and an LC-117—departed Quonset Point, Rhode Island, on September 19, 1966, as With the arrival of the summer support personnel at McMurdo, preparations were immediately made scheduled. (The ferry flight of the LC- 117 is a tale in itself. for the Hercules to transport the first crew and cargo Piloted by Lt. Comdr. C. D. Moran, USN, the air- of the season to Hallett Station, to establish Brockton weather station, and to make the official opening flight to Byrd Station. All three of these flights were 2 Because of the many problems created, flight activities dispatched on October 3. The resumption of flights are usually suspended when temperatures descend to —65° F. to the stations signalled the commencement of

134 ANTARCTIC JOURNAL

annual resupply operations that would continue, out of Punta Arenas, Chile, for two months, and the weather permitting, on a 24-hour basis for the entire LC-130F simultaneously staged out of Byrd Station. five-month austral summer period. Another event By this method of operation, the Hercules could on the 3rd was the arrival at Williams Field of provide search and rescue coverage for the C-121 the seasons first C-121 flight, with 68 passengers. since the respective areas of operation were compat- The second of the Constellations remained on station ible in a time-distance frame; this meant that the in Christchurch as a possible rescue craft, a silent remaining aircraft were free to continue resupplying sentry role that the two aircraft alternately filled from the permanent stations (Byrd, Pole, and Hallett) as October 2 to October 20. This course of action was well as the temporary weather station (Brockton) prescribed in the air operations plan to permit the and remote mobile field camps. maximum number of people to be transported to VX-6 was very successful in meeting the aerial McMurdo in the shortest time and—by thus freeing photography plan: 23,380 flight-line miles of tn- the LC-130Fs for resupply and photography mis- camera aerial mapping had been requested, and sions—to allow operations on the Continent to pro- 24,504 were flown. Special photography require- ceed at an accelerated pace. ments were also exceeded (521 flight-line miles requested, 593 flown); and of 800 flight-line miles Aerial Photography Program a Great Success of reconnaissance photography requested, 741 were The aerial photography program for the flown. All told, flight photographers logged more 1966-1967 austral summer was the most ambitious than 3,200 flight hours over Antarctica on photo- in the history of Operation Deep Freeze, calling for graphic missions. some 24,000 flight-line miles to be flown to obtain The smooth start of the summer resupply and field programs appeared to be a favorable omen for the summers work, but all was not well at Plateau Station: the diesel generators, which had been a DEEP FREEZE 67 source of concern to the wintering-over party since TRIMETROGON MAPPING FLOWN late July 1966, began to malfunction again in early October. It was considered essential to the partys continuation of vital scientific programs that Plateau receive necessary repair parts from McMurdo. Be- tween the 8th and 10th of October, plans were

M formulated for early penetration of the antarctic plateau, and on the 13th, an LC-130F was dis- patched to Plateau Station with the generator repair kit, and so another chapter was written into antarctic aviation history. The extreme cold at the station SOUTH 9OE (- 57C., - 70F.) caused minor damage to the POLE aircraft, but a successful takeoff was effected and the 7 airplane returned by way of McMurdo to Christ- / church, where repairs were made. Five days after arriving in Christchurch, the LC-130F returned to SS Antarctica. C-141 Flight F - ELLSWORTH LAND 13- KOHLER RANGE & FILL LINES An event during Deep Freeze 67 of potentially H - THURSTON ISLAND BALLENY ISLANDS I - EAST SIDE OF ROSS ICE SHELF great significance to the future of antarctic aviation J ROOSEVELT ISLAND was the November 14 landing on the ice runway at K EIGHTS COAST L BRYAN COAST Williams Field of a C-141 Starlifter. 1 The aircraft

R-1 - RECONNAISSANCE FOR DF 68 delivered the largest payload ever flown to the Con- 5-7 - ICE RECONNAISSANCE 18O tinent in a single flight by a U.S. aircraft (12.5 tons), demonstrating the feasibility of pure-jet operations in coverage of more than 350,000 square miles. In- the Antarctic and their vast superiority in terms of cluded in the task was the photographing of a large cargo movement. Even the failure of the aircrafts area of the Antarctic Peninsula. One LC-130F and first attempt on November 10-1 1 showed its superior one C-121J were assigned to the program. To pho- capabilities: deterred by strong winds at McMurdo, tograph the Antarctic Peninsula, the C-121 staged it retraced its route back to Christchurch, a feat

- Antarctic Journal, Vol. II, No. 2, p. 37. I Antarctic Journal, Vol. II, No. I, p. 21.

July-August, 1967 135 of range—and therefore of safety—that cannot be Other Field Support matched by the aircraft currently used on that haz- The effort to place a party at Beardmore Glacier ardous route. in early November was from the outset plagued by difficulty. The LC-130F assigned the mission landed Marie Byrd Land Survey on an apparently favorable snowfield north of the Late October saw the opening of Marie Byrd upper Beardmore Glacier. On touchdown, however, Land Camp No. 1 as the first step in a planned the aircrafts port ski struck a hidden ice berm, three-camp, multidisciplinary survey of the coastal causing the ski to collapse. Repairs were made by area of Marie Byrd Land. The camp was located at the crew members while the field partys equipment the head of Arthur Glacier, some 700 miles from was unloaded, and all personnel boarded the aircraft McMurdo Station. After ground support personnel to return to McMurdo, where careful inspection of had been placed at the campsite, helicopters of the the aircraft revealed no unrepairable damage. A U.S. Army Aviation Detachment (Antarctica Sup- search was begun to locate a safe landing area on the port) were readied for flight to the camp. On No- polar plateau about 30 miles from the equipment vember 2, the detachments three UH-11) Iroquois cache. (Although this would result in a traverse for helicopters departed McMurdo Station to rendez- the field party, it would ensure the safety of the vous with a fuel-bearing LC-130F in the vicinity of aircraft, one of the most valuable resources in the Roosevelt Island. The aircraft met on schedule, and antarctic science program.) A suitable landing site the refueled helicopters proceeded directly to Camp was soon located, and the field party was delivered No. 1, where the speedier LC-130F had taken sta- without incident some three days later. tion to provide navigational assistance by acting as a As a result of this nearly disastrous incident, a de- radio-homing beacon for the helicopters. With the cision was made to reconnoiter each and every arrival of the helicopters—which provided the scien- open-field landing area. This action cost only a few tists with 370 hours of support in 93 flights—the flight hours and paid great dividends in safeguarding scientific activities increased, and Camp No. I be- valuable aircraft. The long-term advantage of this came a prime customer for Hercules logistic sup- procedure will be to help the overall program by port. significantly decreasing the possibility of aircraft The major difficulty encountered in Marie Byrd damage in future field operations, as well as re- Land was adverse weather. Although the prevalence ducing the hazard to personnel. of bad weather in this area had been considered in The aerial placement and recovery of field parties the preseason planning, the extent of the delays ex- in the vicinity of the Polarstar Formation in the Sen- ceeded expectations, and early in the field program tinel Range (where geological and paleontological a UI-I-ID helicopter was lost as a result of the studies were conducted) and in the Ohio Range weather. (The accident occurred under poor visibili- ty conditions while the helicopter was recovering a were completed without incident. The most publicized field party marooned for two days on a mountain- field party to receive aerial support this last season top.) Fortunately, flight operations in Marie Byrd was the American Antarctic Mountaineering Expe- Land continued without incident for the remainder dition, whose goal was to scale Vinson Massif, the of the operating season, although the weather re- highest mountain in Antarctica, and other peaks in mained unfavorable. the Sentinel Range. After a preliminary reconnais- To compensate for the weather problem, fuel sance flight, the party and its equipment were loaded caches were placed east and west of Camp No. 1. aboard the aircraft at McMurdo for what was ex- These caches appreciably lengthened the range of pected to be a normal delivery, but when the plane helicopter operations and served as emergency arrived at the landing site, the area was blanketed in camps for small scientific parties for extended peri- low-lying fog, and an alternate landing area, some ods. In this way, the frequent spells of bad weather three miles from the chosen site, had to be used. were made less of a handicap, and a maximum of The party was unloaded and the plane started back scientific activity was permitted over a broader geo- to McMurdo. All was considered to be going well graphical area. Camp No. I was closed in late Jan- when word was received at McMurdo that the party uary, and all personnel and the helicopters returned was unable to locate a fuel cache that had been to McMurdo for transportation from the Continent. placed during the reconnaissance landing, but a later The survey was not what it was planned to be, but, message stated that the cache had been located and on reflection, those concerned with its scientific yield the climb was proceeding as planned. The group were satisfied with the results obtained in the face of was eminently successful, and approximately three adverse circumstances. weeks later, an LC-130F recovered the party and

136 ANTARCTIC JOURNAL

returned it to McMurdo on the first leg of a trium- phant return to the United States. Construction Report:

Helicopter Support Near McMurdo Deep Freeze 67 In addition to the previously mentioned Army Aviation Detachments operations in Marie Byrd Land, helicopter support for science was provided DONALD R. POPE by Air Development Squadron Six, which operated Major, USA its LH-34s within a 200-mile radius of McMurdo United States Military Academy Station on a daily basis, completing more than 100 percent of the planned program. The helicopters al- so proved valuable in familiarizing working visitors and distinguished guests of the New Zealand and United States Governments with the area around McMurdo. (McMurdo-vicinity helicopter operations were the only flight activities that were not cancelled by a communications blackout that started on Jan- uary 29. The magnetic storm persisted unabated un- • •:.. -. til February 4. Normal operations resumed on the - . c 6th, but solar flare activity continued to cause communications problems through the remainder of • 7wok February.) — The squadrons helicopters completed their tasks without a major accident or incident, although on one occasion a helicopter was forced to land in the treacherous and confined moraine area near Koettlitz Glacier. The cause of the forced landing—failure of (U.S. Navy Photo) the oil-pump drive shaft in the main-rotor gearbox Composite photographplloto,c/(lpIi of McMurdo Station showing extent —presented a very significant problem to the main- of facilities. tenance department since this major repair is nor- mally performed at an overhaul depot. To add to The construction program this past season was the difficulties, a major storm was reported to be carried out essentially as planned. Although the pro- brewing, and the forecasters predicted its arrival in gram was highly successful and the accomplishments the McMurdo area within 12 hours of the time of were many, perhaps the most significant aspect of the forced landing. The estimated time to complete the Deep Freeze 67 construction program was not repairs was 12 - 15 hours, but rather than suffer the what was done, but who accomplished it. On May 1, loss of the helicopter, a maintenance crew was dis- 1966, a new unit was commissioned at Davisville, patched to the scene. Working in sub-zero tempera- Rhode Island, by the Commander, U.S. Naval Con- tures without the benefit of special tools that a depot struction Battalions, Atlantic Fleet to provide con- uses, the mechanics completed the repairs in nine struction support in Antarctica. This new organiza- hours. A half hour later, the helicopter was snugly tion, U.S. Naval Construction Battalion Unit secured at the McMurdo heloport, where it success- (NCBU) 201, is unique in that it is the only Seabee fully rode out the storm. operating unit in the Atlantic Fleet that does not— The helicopter rescue episode and the LC-1 17 because it was formed for a very specific and con- ferry flight point out the dependence of air opera- tinuing mission—carry the "mobile" designation. tions everywhere—but certainly nowhere more so Previously, antarctic construction had been per- than in the Antarctic—on capable, dedicated main- formed by various mobile construction battalions tenance personnel to care for the aircraft, skilled that were assigned on a year-by-year basis. Al- meteorologists to predict the weather conditions for though an annual effort was made to carry over safe flying, and many others to tend the ground fa- from unit to unit some personnel experienced in ant- cilities. Too numerous to cite individually, they arctic construction, the mobile battalions did not en- share with the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps air- joy the degree of continuity and the resulting crew members in the success of the Antarctic Air efficiency that could be provided by a regularly as- Group during Deep Freeze 67.

Formerly on the civil engineering staff of the U. S. Naval Antarctic Journal, Vol. II, No. 2, p. 48-50. Support Force, Antarctica.

July-August, 1967 137